from article...cause and effect
He warned that it’s hard for banks to make money by lending due to the combination of low interest rates and the effects of competition. There are too many banks in Germany and Europe, he said. They’re all going after medium-sized businesses, and prices for financings have become “critically low,” he said.
At the same time, a whole new generation was growing up without the idea of earning interest on savings in the this zero-interest-rate or negative-interest-rate environment. Without that incentive of interest, they aren’t learning to save. And banks won’t be able to play their traditional role as an intermediary to plow those savings back into the economy as loans. So he warned, “I am afraid that we will become only gradually aware of the medium- and long-term consequences of this European debt financing.”